


Technical Difficulties

by gummywyrms



Category: The Property of Hate
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Compliant, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Kinda, Mild Hurt/Comfort, apologies for the oc but also not really, au inspired by some chatter in the tpoh discord, first inspired by some chatter in the tpoh discord when the recent chapter name was first dropped, i dunno what im doing okay, mild for now, that goes for chapter titles too i just do whatever sounds nice, their name is radish i have no idea how relevant they'll actually be, this is YOUR FAULTS, very little review and beta-ing expect errors to be cleared away over time, warnings may change im not sure i have no clue what im doin, we'll see where this goes i guess!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-01
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-14 00:30:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16482653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gummywyrms/pseuds/gummywyrms
Summary: Hero and RGB have a rather frightening encounter with a monster having a terribly bad day. A failed escape attempt, a discovery and a rather poor nap later, things quickly begin to escalate, and now both of them have something entirely new to deal with. Something very bitter and very much poorly fused with the regular RGB's consciousness.





	1. Claymation

The sound of feet pounding furiously on the ground filled Hero’s ears. She gripped RGB’s head tightly, careful to avoid covering his vents or his vision. Taking a deep breath, she braved herself to take a glance behind them.

As she turned her head, the first thing that caught her eyes was the staggering gate at which the creature behind them moved. It stumbled, its large, misshapen, snake-like body moving abnormally across the ground. To her, it looked almost injured, not that it mattered much right now. It seemed far more interested in eating them and RGB seemed far more interested in running.

Her gaze turned to the creatures head and face. Or, where it’s face should’ve been. It’s head was long, gray and empty of any facial features aside from its ears. Just like it’s body, it looked abnormal, as if it was a clay sculpture that had been made by a small child.

She refocused on the path ahead of them, flinching as RGB dodged trees and stones with the gracelessness of a frightened cat, which he more or less was at this point. The creature had been relentless, chasing them for who knows how long. Hero had been so frightened she hadn’t worked up the courage to speak, but she decided now would be as good a time as any.

“What is it?”

“I- hah- don’t- huff- know!” The telly man wheezed. Hero frowned. She could tell he was tiring. She didn’t want to know what would happen if they stopped.

Hero glanced back at the beast, then down at RGB galloping along. She did this again, a few times even, her heart catching in her throat.

Was the creature getting…. closer?

Or was RGB slowing down?

She could hear the man panting, a strange noise to hear coming from a TV.

Over that, the sounding of the beast thudding into trees clumsily.

She swiftly deduced that it might as well have been both.

She swung her head back once again, squinting at the monster. She could see it’s ears were raised, swiveling about. Although it crashed into trees and stones, oft falling behind, it still managed to know exactly where they were going.

Could it not see? Was it following them by _hearing_ alone?

Once again, the thudding of RGB’s feet filled her ears.

She blinked thoughtfully, reaching for RGB’s antennas.

She had an idea.

* * *

RGB panted, doing his best to do what he was best at, which just so happened to be running away.

He could hear the ‘whump’s of whatever in the world the thing was behind him, although he didn’t bother to look back. Not when he had to focus so hard on looking forward.

It had only been a few moments since Hero had asked him that question, that “what is it?”, but he kept going over that question in his mind, seeking some sort of desperate answer.

Was it an Idea, perhaps? They certainly took all sorts of shapes and sizes, but if it was, then it was one horrible, terrible, awful idea.

He tossed these theories aside, for now, and kept running, knowing he would until his legs gave out, but he feared that that would happen sooner rather than later.

And he ended up being sort of right, anyways.

He felt a sudden, harsh tug on his antennas. A sharp, uncomfortable and somewhat painful feeling rattled through his body and he let out a sharp yell. Distracted and confused by the sudden occurrence, he went tumbling to the ground, Hero in tow.

It took him a moment to figure what had happened, shaken out of his disorientation by the stomping of the beast. He was about to ask Hero why, why why why, when he felt a small hand on his face and heard a small click as his volume dial was turned to mute.

He had started to reach for it when he heard a soft “Shhh!” and a “Don’t move!”, so he stopped as per her request. Even so, he could feel himself shake. What was it that this girl had planned now?

The creature lurched unsteadily over to them before abruptly stopping. He could feel what seemed to be drool drip onto him and watched its long, mangled face swing about, ears swiveling. He held the breath he didn’t have, and somehow he could tell Hero was holding hers too.

From here, he could hear the creature panting. It let out a strange, muffled sort of whine, it’s ears drooping as it turned to wander off.

This, of course, didn’t occur completely without incident, however. As the creature lifted one shaky, clawed foot it suddenly stumbled and fell to the ground with a loud thud. It’s panting turned to wheezing.

The last thing he saw before being knocked unconscious was the creature’s deformed body falling directly towards him.


	2. Dichloromethane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hero decides to help.

Hero wiggled out from under the tip on the beasts tail, rubbing her sore head. She sat for a moment, processing what had just happened for hopping to her feet. The beast seemed harmless now, or she hoped it was, at least. She could hear it’s muffled whining and wheezing from where she stood. It sounded like it was in pain.

Cautiously, she reached out and patted the beasts matted fur. It didn’t respond. She sighed in relief, moving towards the front of the creature to get a better look at what was wrong as she dragged her hand along its pelt.

Slowly and quietly, she stepped towards its head. It’s ears were flopped down sadly, one clawed paw reaching out shakily to scrape at the ground as if attempting to drag itself along. It let out a huff as it gave up, big paw dropping to the ground with a thud.

Hero stared at it, bewildered. It was clear something was wrong with it, but she couldn’t tell what it was. Maybe this is why it had chased them? Was it scared and confused? Was it angry? Hero remembered quite clearly from the books she read that animals often acted aggressive, disoriented or delirious when injured or sick. She wondered how smart this creature was. It certainly seemed like one big, weird animal.

She reached out and touched the beast’s face, once again receiving no response. It was rough, covered in claw marks and otherwise lumpy. Up close she could see the mixtures of purples, blues and greens scattered across its face like the facets of an odd crystal. She glanced between the claw marks on the ground and the ones that covered the beast’s face.

Hero was no detective, she knew she could be wrong on this but…. they looked extremely similar, as if the beast had been scratching at its own face. As if it’s face was…

Oh!

Thoughts falling back on the tree, she shuffled around in the grass looking for RGB’s cane. Ah! There it was.

She scooped it up, hooking it on the collar of her jumper before grabbing large tufts of the beasts fur and beginning to climb up its neck.

The beast seemed to notice the tugging of her small hands. It’s ears pricked and it lifted it’s heavy head wearily, glancing around sightlessly as a peculiar noise rumbled from its throat. Hero gripped more tightly, pulling herself closer to its body to stop herself from being thrown off.

A few minutes of climbing later and she was on the back of its neck. The beast continued to make confused noises as she clambered further to the the back of its head.

Here, she could see the edge of the []. She stuck one end of the cane under it until she knew it was firmly stuffed beneath it. Then, she began to push down on the other end. When it didn’t budge, she pushed even harder.

_CRACK!_   Hero flinched as she fell on her stomach, eyes shut tight. After a few moments, she slowly opened them and sighed with relief when she saw that the cane was still in one piece. A large chunk of the [] had been torn off and she could hear a dull thump from nearby as the chunk finished its descent.

The layer of [] beneath was akin to a slimy blob. She bent down, scooping the substance up in her arms and dumping it off over the edge of the creatures head. She heard the monster make a curious noise as the [] hit the ground with a plop.

She continued this process, breaking chunks of [] off and clearing up the residue it left behind. Beneath it she found messy, dampened fur, pale from overexposure to the [].

She didn’t know how long she went on with this, but eventually the sky began to darken. The beast, which had come to some understanding of what had been happening and laid its head down to let her clear the [] away, made a curious noise when she stopped.

She patted the exposed part of its head gently, apologizing for having to stop for now. It chirped in response. She took the cane and slid down its neck back to the safety of the ground.

Just as her feet hit the ground, she remembered something very important she had forgotten.

RGB.

“RGB? RGB?” She scampered around the monster, looking for evidence of him. Eventually, she saw a gloved hand poking out from beneath its tail. She grabbed it and began to pull. Despite her best efforts, he barely budged.

She ran back up to the front of the beast. “Can you move your tail?”

It tilted its head for a moment in confusion, then grunted. She watched as it moved unsteadily, unveiling the unconscious telly head beneath.

She ran over to him. He was scuffed up pretty badly and she could see the occasional glitch or error flicker across his suit. It was too dark to check him properly, however, so she grabbed him by the arm and began to tug him over to a safe spot.

She leaned his limp body on one of the beasts big paws, readjusting him to make sure he’d be comfortable. The beast turned its head and gave him a firm pat with the other massive paw as if checking him out before giving a huff of what sounded like approval and getting comfortable again.

Hero noticed that when it pulled away, it left some peculiar substance on him. She wiped some off with one hand, observing it. It sparkled in the faint light, a swirling combination of colors. Fiddling with it, she noted that it seemed harmless enough. It didn’t burn her hands, numb them or change them at all, and RGB’s body didn’t spark with electricity in response to the fluid. It just dripped off the both of them into the grass below. She rubbed the rest of the substance off her hands and settled down near RGB.

Yawning, she curled up and closed her eyes as she drifted off into the world of her dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy update folks! i still havent worked out the update schedule of this fic, if it'll even have one, but im gonna say at /least/ once a week in estimate.
> 
> i promise it'll get more interesting next chapter. for now, you can have helpful hero doin her thing


	3. Standby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An angry television tries to fight himself. All things considered, RGB deserves it.

“No. No. No. Definitely not.” The telly headed man grumbled, leaping off of the front of the train and going tumbling across his black and white dreamscape, just barely avoiding being struck.

“This isn’t how I died.”

He sat up, brushing himself off as he glanced around. Outside of the messes of other, previous accidents that hadn’t been his own scattered about, the landscape was a blank, endless void.

As he rose to his feet, he frowned when he didn’t fall through a trapdoor or get smashed into by a car. There was just an eerie silence, pierced only by a faint buzzing in the air and a familiar hissing. He shuddered at the sound of it.

Wait.

Was the noise getting closer?

He did a complete 360, trying to determine where the noise was coming from. He didn’t see any change to the landscape, so he did this a few more times, ignoring the fact that he felt very silly as he did.

He crossed his arms in frustration. Where was it coming from?

Then he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder.

He whirled around, coming face to face with… something.

Vibrant colors seemed to drip down its otherwise indistinct, yet familiarly shaped body, making it stand out like a sore thumb in the monochromatic environment. Its shoulders slouched and its head tilted. He shifted uncomfortably under the gaze of its single, piercing eye.

He wanted to run, but he felt stuck in place, as if he had forgotten how to use his legs. He watched it clench and unclench it’s fists, as if unused to having hands at all. It looked.... tense. And very, very angry.

The hissing filled the air now. The figure unclenched one jagged, trembling hand, lunging for his neck.

* * *

Hero had been chipping away tirelessly at the beasts head, chunk after chunk of [] falling to the ground, when an unpleasant noise filled the air. A noise akin to those testing errors that interrupted the television program sometimes. Hero always hated that noise.

Seeing as she hadn’t expected it, she was jolted out of her focus abruptly and went tumbling off the beasts head. She hit the ground with a dull thud. The beast let out an uneasy whine as the noise eventually stopped.

She was quick to deduce the source of the noise, being all to familiar with it, and hurried over to RGB, questions racing through her head. She was terrified of what she might find.

She found RGB slumped over into a lying position, turned away from her. He had been like that since she had woken up that morning, however, so she doubted that was the issue.

Suddenly, he shifted and promptly winced.

Hero crept over, eyeing his body as the colors shifted and flickered in and out of focus. She noted that he was suddenly harder to look at, small glitches flashing through the air around him. She felt her stomach drop.

He tried to move again, letting out a low groan of pain as he did so. His antennas crumpled as he very slowly reached for his head. His movements were shaky and pained.

Abruptly, he grabbed his head and curled into himself. Hero took a step back, watching him as he shivered. Then, ever so nervously, she reached out to tap his shoulder.

* * *

 

He awoke to a horrible, awful headache. Worse than any of the ones he’d had before. He could only assume Hero had slept too close to him.

He heard a distant thump. At least, he thought he did. Everything felt wrong and off and his senses were a pathetic mess.

His vision was blurry. All he could see in front of him was a large chunk of gray something or other and what seemed to be grass.

He attempted to roll over, but was met with even more pain. Another attempt, extra pain. He groaned softly, grabbing his head and curling up into a shivering ball of hurt. He hoped Hero wouldn’t have to see him like this.

He felt a tiny hand gently touch his arm. So much for that hope. He couldn’t move without hurting, so he attempted to speak instead.

“hhhhhHer-r-r-ro?” His speakers crackled with static. His voice itself was choppy and broken. It hurt to speak just as much as it hurt to move. He felt the child flinch at the horrible noise. He hesitated a moment before continuing. “Arrrre y-y-you alright-t-t?”

She paused.

“RGB? Are you okay?”

Suddenly, he jolted, his mind in some sort of odd tizzy. That was his name. Yet, it wasn’t? Or was it? No, it wasn’t. He seemed to be arguing with himself on something he should’ve known. He didn’t notice that his body was trembling quite hard as his thoughts spiralled into wordless confusion, buzzing with memories he recognized and ones he didn’t as he tried to figure out what was going on with him. It was only now he seemed to realize that something was terribly wrong on an internal level as well.

Hero, of course, did notice his shaking. She had no idea what to say or do, however, so she just quietly reached out and grabbed his hand. She knew he didn’t like holding hands, but she had the feeling he needed it right now.

He practically jumped out of his non-existent skin, pulling away with a startled spark of static. Hero flinched as the air around him glitched and flickered. He was sitting up, at least, even if he was slumped at an odd angle. He grumbled something that sounded vaguely like a curse, to Hero. She was about to say something when one of his arms seemed to jolt with alarm, scrunching into a fist and-

He smacked himself.

Well, more like punched himself, really.

Hero was reasonably taken aback and RGB seemed just as alarmed. He stared at his shaking, clenched fist. It had taken on a duller hue, hinted with patches of black and white. His rogue arm seemed to to be contemplating whether or not to smack him again.

It seemed to decide against it for now, choosing to settle down on one leg and tap its fingers with notable impatience instead. RGB looked incredibly disoriented by this turn of events.

“RGB? What-”

“I d-d-didn’t do th-that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello! really wanted to post another chapter this week, so here's chapter 3! this is where things start to actually get interesting, so to speak. or at least, where i think they start to get interesting. You Know Who finally comes into play and hes already to throw hands
> 
> ft. one of my headcanons for ya monochrome boi
> 
> (also ive officially hit 10k words with all my combined fics. fucken sick)


	4. PM5544

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Testing, testing... 1 2 3!

He just sort of stared at the arm, breathing getting fast. Hero tiptoed over to him to make sure he didn’t start panicking. She had a feeling she sort of knew what was going on, although she didn’t want to admit it. Still, she wanted to test something first before she she came to any conclusions. The telly head turned his gaze towards her.

“Herrrrro-o-o? What are you doing?”

She reached out and grabbed his rogue arm. The arm seemed startled by this development, flinching a bit, then relaxing again. She stared up RGB, who stared at her uncertainly.

“Can you feel this?”

“No. No I cannot.” The speed of his breathing only increased at this. Hero didn’t know that a TV could hyperventilate, not that she knew the word hyperventilate yet. She patted him on his leg, a part of him she assumed he could feel her from.

The stray arm patted Hero on her head back. Well, she thought, that seemed to be a good sign.

Then it reared back again, aimed straight for RGB’s face. Hero leapt up and grabbed it.

“Don’t do a hit!”

At that moment, RGB seemed to jolt harshly, letting out a staticky yelp. He flopped over in the grass, holding his head in his functional hand, shaking. His less cooperative hand shook just as much. They both seemed very pained. The air around them glitched harshly and Hero could smell something akin to ozone and burning.

Hero stared, frightened, as she watched his colors shift and flicker harshly. She could see darker hues against lighter ones, greyscale against vibrant rainbow, as if RGB was fighting for dominance over his own body.

It stopped just as suddenly as it started.

Colors settled somewhat, a strange mixture of greys, blacks and whites on pinks, blues and yellows. His tv head seemed to be split between dark and light, albeit unevenly so. His shaking once again resided into shivering, his antennas twitching as he laid there, seeming to try and catch his breath. She could hear him panting heavily.

He tried to sit up again, but his body wasn’t cooperating with him, moving in strange, jerky motions as if two very different people were trying to run the body at the same time. After several attempts, he gave up, letting out a huff and instead choosing to roll over to look at Hero.

He saw her expression and let out a nervous laugh, not noticing how wrong it sounded, and attempted to fake a smile. He wanted to say something, but words wouldn’t come to him. Hero seemed quite preoccupied with something else, however.

She shuffled over, sitting down near his head, her own tilted. Owlish eyes glittered with curiosity and something else he couldn’t read. Then, she grabbed his face and pulled it towards her own, curious gaze turning to a suspicious squint. He just let her, alarmed but uncertain on how to respond anyways.

“You’re not…” She tapered off and waved a hand in front of his screen. His own gaze followed it. “But I don’t think you’re him either….”

She stared down at his limp body, settled into a strange and uncomfortable looking position and once again she saw him follow where she looked with that peculiar new face of his. The round… eye? (Could she call it an eye? It sort of looked like both an eye and a test screen.) Blinked in confusion.

“HeR-RRo… Wh-wh-what arRRre youuuu d-d-d-doinggg?” He asked, reaching up one trembling arm to grab her own. His voiced fluctuated in pitch and tone, static dancing throughout it. She could barely understand what he was saying, his voice even choppier and more broken sounding than before. It sort of sounded like two different people fighting to speak over each other to her.

She glanced between his face and his tangled up body. “Isn’t it uncomfortable?”  
  
“Wh-wh-whatttt?”

“The way you’re laying? It looks uncomfortable.”

He looked contemplative for a moment before giving what looked like a half shrug, as if only part of him was in it. “N-n-no. I….” He seemed to trail off for a moment. “C-c-can’t-t fffeel anythinnng.”

Hero was slightly taken aback by this statement when he flinched. “Nope. Wwwait. F-f-feeling ssssomething.” She set his head back down on the ground.

“I think… You need to rest.”

Her friend seemed to be offended by this statement. He attempted to sit up again, this time with slightly better results.

“I’mmmm ffffine Herrro. We n-n-need to k-k-keep goinnng, anywayssss.”

He was half way up, when his rogue arm, now rogue half, seemed to disagree with him. Whoever or whatever it was took control, yanking his arm out from under him. He thudded back to the ground.

He tried again, several times, to no avail. They seemed to be adjusting to this state a bit, the two of them. Hero repressed a giggle as a part of her friend angrily patted his other half.

He let out a sigh. “Ffffffine! I- _we’ll_ rrrrest, but-t-t-t nnnot forrrr long.”

He settled down, attempting to get into a comfortable position. His movements had reverted to being jerky and strange looking as opposed to two halves fighting with one another. Hero supposed it was an improvement.

Hero sat, watching him, as he tossed and turned, grumbling to himself. Eventually he did get comfortable, letting out a sigh as he gradually drifted off into sleep. Hero remained, gaze focused on him a bit longer, just to make sure nothing went wrong.

She didn’t notice the large eye observing them until the rest of its body whined, jolting her out of her focus. She glanced up, meeting eyes with the beast. It blinked. She blinked back.

It’s gaze darted from her friend (Hero wasn’t sure she could call him RGB currently) and back to her. It whined again. Somehow, Hero had completely forgotten it was there and, somehow, not-RGB hadn’t noticed it at all, which was probably for the better. She stood up, hurrying over and patting its face. She was sort of glad she had managed to clear away the [] around one eye. It made it a bit easier for her to understand what it was thinking.

It shifted and she watched as it cautiously hooked one large claw on his shirt collar and dragged him over towards them. She patted its face again, thanking it for doing that. It chirruped in response.

Hustling over to where she dropped the cane, she scooped it up, clambered up the beasts neck as the creature raised one paw to tear away at the []. With the first crack and thud of [] hitting the ground, the both of them got back to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey! i was SUPPOSED to get this out yesterday, but i put it off so now we're here! 
> 
> another fun chapter to write, in that i am having a good time making rgb suffer and also humiliating him! i honest to god still have no idea where im going with this, though. i am a wreckless fool!
> 
> spot if youre reading this fuck you go to bed

**Author's Note:**

> hi welcome to chilis and also another self-indulgent fic day. ive been writing this one on and off and i have no idea where im going with it, so bear with me here. (vague apologies for the tpoh oc insert or whatever you'd call it? i dunno this was self indulgent but folks asked for it anyways)
> 
> also! happy halloween, folks! hope you're all havin a good one ::y


End file.
